Android Headliner: Chinese Handsets Need Quad-Band Support

The Chinese smartphone market has been booming for a number of years. This is the biggest smartphone market in the world, and cannot be rivaled by anyone else at the moment. There are tons of smartphone OEMs in China, a number of which you’ve probably already heard of. China is home to a number of high-profile companies, like Xiaomi, Huawei and ZTE as well as many up-and-coming ones, like Meizu. You’ve probably heard of all of these companies before, but there are a ton of smaller brands over there, like Mlais, Ulefone, Siswoo, etc.

We’ve talked about many of these Chinese companies thus far, and many of the smaller ones actually manufacture quite solid devices which are being shipped all over the world. Now, Chinese brands in general tend to release devices which are exclusive for China, and thus have limited connectivity elsewhere. Interesting enough, these are mostly high-profile companies. Some companies tend to release really compelling devices which someone outside of Asia would like to get, and can’t because of the network support. This actually goes for many of the Chinese OEMs which tend to release devices regionally, instead of including quad-band support in their phones.

Many of you probably know what I’m talking about here, but some of you might wonder what is quad-band support. Well, quad-band support actually refers to support for all 4 GSM frequency bands 850/900/1800/1900MHz. If this is included in a device, it basically makes it compatible with every GSM network in the world. This, of course, makes having such a device really convenient because you can purchase it no matter where you live without having to wonder if your SIM card will actually work / is compatible with the device.

This can come in handy in many situations, not only if you want to purchase a device which is exclusive to China, but if you’re a frequent traveller or something of the sort. Truth be told, Chinese OEMs are not the only ones to be blamed here, but considering how many devices they release, they’re kind of under the spotlight at the moment. In conclusion, it would be great if every single OEM would include quad-band support in smartphones, no matter where you intend to sell it, leave people the option to buy the device if they can somehow. Including quad-band support isn’t exactly such a financial minus that OEMs can’t afford it, quite frankly, they wouldn’t even feel the difference in their budget quite probably, even the smaller companies, and it would definitely boost their sales. I would really like to hear what’re your thoughts are here, because I’ve had issues with limited band support in smartphones numerous times, and I’m actually wondering does this bother you as well? Feel free to share your thoughts.